1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a parenteral fluid administration kit and method and, more particularly, to parenterally administering fluid medication with re-usable components under sterile conditions for each use.
2. Description of Related Art
For patients requiring the parenteral administration of fluid medication, it is known to utilize throw-away syringes with attached needles which are packed in their own hermetically sealed pouches, manufactured under sterile conditions in order to prevent contamination of the syringes. Once a pouch is opened, it is intended to be used immediately to prevent the syringe, which is now exposed to the germ-laden environment, from becoming contaminated and, hence, unsafe to use.
For patients requiring medication injections on an infrequent basis, it is a minimal expense to discard the syringe after its use. However, for patients, such as diabetics, who require at least one, and sometimes multiple, injections of insulin each day, the expense of throwing away syringes mounts up. Although such patients could sterilize the syringes by boiling them after each use, as some hospitals and medical personnel used to do and still sometimes do, experience has shown that most patients do not have the time or the inclination to bother with such boiling and, as a result, reluctantly incur the ever-mounting costs of discarding such syringes, or bear the risk of exposing themselves to infection by using non-sterilized syringes.
Syringes with attached needles are not the only things which diabetics are intended to routinely discard. Before the injection is given, the diabetic frequently wishes to test his or her own blood glucose level for diagnostic purposes. For that reason, lancets are used to prick and draw blood from the diabetic. An alcohol-saturated pad is used to sterilize not only the pricking site, but also the injection site. The pads and lancets are intended to be discarded after each use, and represent another non-negligible medical treatment cost.
Still another problem in this field regards the relatively large space required for a diabetic to store all of the above paraphernalia. In other words, a plurality of syringes with attached needles, a plurality of lancets, a plurality of pads and an alcohol supply, together with appropriate vials of insulin, occupy a considerable amount of space. When one is at home for each injection, the space requirement is not so critical, but when one works or travels, space is more limited, and it would be more desirable to minimize the space requirement for such paraphernalia when one is away from home.
Recent drug abuse and safety guidelines dictate that any discarded syringes be destroyed, or at least their attached needles be clipped, prior to discarding the syringe. Experience has shown that many individuals, either deliberately or inadvertently, do not observe such guidelines.